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Webb cites dickens of hurry over Tom

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Why you can trust SCMP
Jake Van Der Kamp

Your correspondent likes to do his own work and claim all the credit himself but sometimes has to concede that others have already done it and better than he can.

Independent financial commentator David Webb has taken a close look at unusual aspects of the listing of Tom.com and has raised questions the Securities and Futures Commission urgently needs to address.

Specifically he points out that the extraordinary number and scope of listing-rule waivers given to Tom.com and asks whether the stock exchange's incarnation as a profit-making entity is compatible with its regulatory role.

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Public accusations are already growing of favouritism by the exchange in the hasty listing of this overheated Internet concept play on its trivial pursuits board, the Growth Enterprise Market (GEM), but Mr Webb has done the best job so far of fleshing out this criticism.

First there is GEM rule 17.29, prohibiting new issues within six months of listing but stating in a note that 'in exceptional circumstances, the exchange may be prepared to waive the requirements of this rule, for example, where the listed issuer raised, at the time of its initial public offering, less than the maximum amount stated in its listing document'.

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The example obviously does not apply as Tom.com is fully underwritten and more than one million application forms for it have already been snapped up.

Yet the waiver was granted and we are left with thin air as to what exceptional circumstances the exchange saw in this case.

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